Rent–wage inequality in Mexico City, 1770–1930
通过追踪1770至1930年墨西哥城城市房地产租金与非熟练工人工资的差距，揭示了收入不平等长期趋势，发现18世纪末不平等温和上升，19世纪上半叶更平等，19世纪末急剧扩大并持续至1930年。
Abstract This article traces trends of income inequality in Mexico City from 1770 to 1930 by measuring the gaps between urban real estate rents and unskilled wages. The article presents the first long‐term series of real estate values and rental income for Mexico. One series summarizes the price of an apartment in tenement housing (the prevalent type of popular housing in Mexico), while the other relies on newspaper ads, notarial records, and other sources to estimate property values and rental yield (rental revenue relative to property values). From these wage and rental income series, we calculate rental–wage ratios that are broadly representative of the income gaps between the wealthy and unskilled workers. We find that, at the end of the eighteenth century, inequality moderately increased, followed by a more egalitarian period in the first half of the nineteenth century, and a ballooning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century that persisted into 1930. While inequality receded after the insurrection in the 1810s, it remained high after the Mexican Revolution. We hypothesize that inequality was sensitive to economic growth, and that generalized violence did not universally temper inequality.